In point of purchase display or retail settings, products are blister packaged on cardboard and removably hanged from elongated horizontally extended prongs or hooks.
Typical prior art pronged packaged product hanger display systems are disclosed in: Valiulis, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,909, granted Jul. 9, 1983; Pfeifer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,764, granted Sep. 1, 1981; Valiulis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,557, granted Jul. 25, 1989; Valiulis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,033, granted Nov. 8, 1988; Barnes, U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,698, granted Jun. 14, 1988; Felkay, U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,547, granted Apr. 12, 1966; Larson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,017, granted Dec. 3, 1996; Taub, U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,308, granted Apr. 22, 1986; Windish, U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,510, granted Aug. 7, 1984; Thalenfeld, U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,440, granted Sep. 28, 1982; Gold, U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,485, granted Feb. 29, 1972; Jensen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,167, granted Sep. 20, 1994; Fast, U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,639, granted May 19, 1987; Wood, U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,175, granted Jul. 8, 1997; Garfinkle, U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,217, granted Dec. 1, 1981; Fredrickson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,565, granted Jun. 26, 1990; Aslan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,753, granted Oct. 14, 1986; and Stucker, U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,799, granted Jun. 7, 1977.
The prior art product displays are often U-shaped members with one end having the elongated prong or hook for hanging the package and the other end having a mounting piece for holding a product information display card. The U-shaped display members were mounted to a wall or frame so that the elongated prongs or hooks and the information display extend horizontally forwardly to the point of purchase.
The product information display card necessarily contained product description and pricing information as well as bar code information required for inventory purposes. The product information, particularly including the bar code information, had to be of a certain minimum size for reading by a conventional bar code reader and or by the prospective purchaser. To economize on space, the U-shaped displays were mounted side-by-side with the minimal space therebetween. Where the packages were of considerable width, the width of the package dictated the minimum side-by-side spacing or space requirement. Where the packages were of small or limited width, the width of the product information cards determined the minimum side-by-side space utilization.
Small, relatively low cost, items were blister packaged on cards of less than 2 inches in width, and often no more than about 1 inch in width. The product information card width, however, at a minimum needed to be at least about 2 inches. This minimum card width was necessary to carry the requisitely sized bar code and purchaser information. Retailers were reluctant to display such low cost items because the point of purchase space allocation requirement to revenue ratio was prohibitively high. That is, more cost effective package products could be utilized in the always valuable retail space.
The product display art therefore desired a space efficient display for small packaged low cost items, while providing the requisitely juxtaposed minimally sized product information display.